NASA has scheduled two U.S. spacewalks, on Thursday, Oct. 29 and Thursday, Nov. 5, to install the seventh and eighth International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays and finish the station’s power upgrade. NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk are assigned to both outings. When the last array is deployed, NASA says, the station’s electric generating capacity will rise from 160 kilowatts to approximately 215 kilowatts.
NASA will preview the two spacewalks at a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 20, from Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Spacewalk 100: the seventh array on the 2A channel
According to NASA’s media advisory, U.S. Spacewalk 100 on Oct. 29 has Menon and Kutryk leave through the Quest airlock, then install and deploy a roll-out solar array on the station’s 2A power channel. It will be the seventh such array. NASA says the new hardware will provide additional power to support critical station operations, including the station’s safe and controlled deorbit, a phrase that ties the upgrade to the outpost’s planned end of life as well as its remaining years of research.
The two walks will be the 285th and 286th spacewalks conducted in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades.
Dragon’s Thursday docking delivers the hardware
The arrays are not yet aboard. They ride in the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft that Space.com reports lifted off on a Falcon 9 on Oct. 13 with 6,300 pounds of supplies. Dragon is scheduled to dock at about 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the space-facing port of the Harmony module. NASA’s station blog says the stowed arrays will be installed and activated on the truss structure during upcoming spacewalks, and it notes that Menon and Kutryk will monitor Dragon’s automated approach. They joined NASA flight engineers Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney in talks with mission controllers about cargo operations once the spacecraft arrives.
Space.com adds that Dragon should remain attached for about a month before returning to Earth and splashing down under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean off California. NASA+ begins live coverage of the rendezvous and docking at 9:15 a.m. EDT, and because the docking is still hours away when this article publishes, the schedule is a plan rather than a completed event. The same cargo flight also carries research hardware, including equipment for creating artificial retinas and growing heart tissues in weightlessness, so the solar arrays share the ride with biomedical experiments.
Spacewalk 101: the eighth and final array on the 3B channel
A week after the first outing, U.S. Spacewalk 101 on Nov. 5 sends the same pair back outside to install and deploy the eighth and final array, on the 3B power channel. NASA describes that job as completing the power augmentation upgrades. The advisory does not explain why one crew handles both walks, and it does not say how long either excursion is expected to last.
The totals are NASA’s own. The advisory says the eight roll-out arrays together will increase available power by up to 30%, and separately states that generation capacity will go from 160 kilowatts to approximately 215 kilowatts. Both figures describe the finished set of eight, so neither applies after the Oct. 29 outing alone; the seventh array adds only part of the gain, and the station reaches the stated output only when the eighth is deployed on Nov. 5.
The Oct. 20 briefing and how to follow it
Two NASA officials are scheduled to speak. Gaurang Patel, operations integration manager in the Low Earth Orbit Program, and Garrett Hehn, a spacewalk flight director in the Flight Operations Directorate, will take questions about the plans. U.S.-based media who want to attend in person must contact the Johnson newsroom at [email protected] by 3 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 19. Reporters can also request phone dial-in details by that deadline, and anyone asking a question must dial in no later than 15 minutes before the briefing starts.
NASA’s advisory gives the briefing a single purpose: previewing the two spacewalks that will finish the installation of the solar arrays and the power upgrades on the station. Patel and Hehn are the only two speakers the advisory names, one from the program-management side and one from flight operations, and the briefing is open to questions from media who dial in or attend at Johnson in person. NASA’s release lists media contacts in Washington and Houston for logistics questions.
The conference will stream on multiple platforms at NASA’s live events page. NASA says it will post further coverage details for each spacewalk closer to the dates on that page and on the station blog, so start times for Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 are still to be announced. Readers who want to watch either spacewalk live will need to check that page again as each date approaches, since the advisory itself gives only the dates and not the hours.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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